From: johnny moral (johnnymoral@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jun 22 2004 - 18:35:37 BST
Hi Platt and All,
Platt found proof that Pirsig favors free enterprise, and not just in
theory:
>Nonsense. Pirsig writes:
>
>"People, like everything else, work better in parallel than they do in
>series, and that is what happens in THIS FREE ENTERPRISE CITY. When things
>are organized socialistically in a bureaucratic series, any increase in
>complexity increases the probability of failure. But when they're
>organized in a free-enterprise parallel, an increase in complexity becomes
>an increase in diversity more capable of responding to Dynamic Quality,
>and thus an increase of the probability of success. It's this diversity
>and parallelism that make this city work. And not just this city. Our
>greatest national economic success, agriculture, is organized almost
>entirely in parallel." (Lila, 17) (emphasis added)
>
>By "this free enterprise city" Pirsig is speaking about the existing New
>York, not some theoretical Utopia.
>
>Wouldn't you think that in a site dedicated to Pirsig that contributors
>would actually read what he wrote once in awhile?
>
>Best,
>Platt
So OK, let's agree that a free enterprise system, such as the existing one,
responds better to DQ, than planned economies, which, due to having to stick
to the plan, are shut off from DQ. (Of course this is a matter of degree,
they both rely on planning, or at least on assumptions of future stability,
and both are capable of changing the plan if something's not working.)
My question is, who is this better response to DQ better for? What
benefits? Everyone? The system? The economy? The intellectual patterns
of the system? Intellectual patterns in general? Social patterns? People
in general? A few people in particular? Quality/Morality itself?
And my other question is, should the abiity for [what?] to respond to DQ
necessarily be maximized? Is it always right, more moral, to support things
that "work better"? Or are there not other instances of responding to DQ
that might be thwarted when other responses are maximized? For example,
could it be said that Intellectual patterns such as equality, fairness,
cooperation and well, social-marxism are also responses to DQ, and that
these responses to DQ, while they don't "work better" at speeding dynamic
change and facilitating progress, "work better" at producing a stable and
mentally satisfying world that might be better at responding to DQ on a
personal relationship level, where it can actually be felt by us, instead of
by the Giant (had to come back to that "NYC is the Giant" thing, sorry).
I think that the right answer to the first question, or the proper answer,
should be for Quality/Morality to benefit. Above all else, we should always
act in Quality/Morality's best interest, and love for love's sake. And so
my answer to the second question is that all patterns should be respected
and continued, and we should not give one intellectual pattern automatic
default priority over other ones, or contnue patterns which have a
detrimental effect on other patterns, whatever level they are. So in this
case, I think it is right to respect patterns of freedom in enterprise,
allowing people to do what they want, but within reason. We should not
allow their efforts to contribute to run-away patterns which threaten the
survival of other patterns. Nor should we allow patterns of caring for the
less fortunate to threaten survival of the pattern of letting people do what
they want. If doing that becomes complicated and inefficient, and holds
back progress a little bit, I think it is worth it, because Morality is
preserved and enhanced. It just takes more effort.
Johnny
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